Hartland Township officials have anticipated for years that land located next to the new Venture Church would become a residential development.

About ten years ago, the township got as far as granting final approval for homes on the site – long before the church was built. However, the previous plan for development fell through.

Now a new concept plan is on the table for a 64-home residential development on the land.

Hartland Township’s board of trustees will discuss the basic concept tonight at its meeting.

If the developer follows through and township officials give their approvals, then developable land left over after the construction of the church will become the Walnut Ridge Estates.

David Campbell, the township’s planning director, indicated Monday that he was generally pleased to have the proposed Walnut Ridge Estates development in the works. He noted that Walnut Ridge Estates is the largest proposed residential development on the table in Hartland Township right now. He sees it as a good sign that new construction is making a comeback.

“We’re definitely seeing an uptick in the number of proposed residential projects, at least in Hartland,” Campbell said.

“The (previous 2005 plan) was all good to go, but it never happened. That was presumably because of the downturned economy,” Campbell said.

Capital Construction Group, LLC, which is owned by developer Jack Lansing, has submitted a planned development amendment concept plan to Hartland Township to develop the land, which is located on the north side of M-59 between Cullen and Hacker Roads.

Comments from planning commission members at an April 16 review of the basic concept “were favorable,” Campbell said.

“What the developer is proposing is very similar to what was approved ten years ago. Lot sizes and the road layout are the same, and things like set-backs and density,” Campbell said, adding that “it is almost like we have seen this already.”

There are some major differences. For one, Venture Church (previously The River Community Church) had not been built yet in 2005. When the township approved Ivanhoe Huntley Homes’ 80-home project, which would have been called Crestwood, all 76 acres were available for development.

As the new plan stands right now, Venture Church would get approximately 30-or-so acres and Walnut Ridge Estates would be built on the remaining acres.

Campbell noted that a plan to develop the land comes “as no surprise.”

“In 2013, when the church got approval to develop the actual church, which opened in 2015, everyone recognized that the back 40-or-so acres were always going to be a residential development,” Campbell said.

If the basic concept for the proposed Walnut Ridge Estates development gains favor with the township’s board of trustees today, the developer will be welcomed to start the process of seeking site plan approvals from township officials.